Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1887-09-17


seemed rs though only the dress Or heavier
part o. the light had sunk to tho bottom Of
his awful place. No bright winged sunbeam
could fell 80 iowi they died far, far above onr
heads
BY The rivers cd 20 ~as n little shore
formed OF round Fragments Of rock washed
into this shape by the constant action Of
water, and giving the place the appearance
Of Being strewn with thousands OF fossil cnn-
non balls. Evidently when the water Of the
underground river Is high there i no beach
ut all, or very little, between the border of
The stream and theprecipitous cliffs; but now
there was space Of seven or eight yards
And here ON this beach, we determined to
land, in order TO rest ourselves little after
all that we had gone through, and to stretch
our limbs. II was dreadful place, but 10
would give an hours respite from the telrofs
Of the river, and also allow OF our repacking
and arranging the canoe. Accordingly we
selected what looked like a favorable spot,
and with some little difficulty managed 10
Leach the canoe and scramble out on to the
round, inhospitable pebbles.
aMy word,n called cut Good, who was on
shore the first, @what aii awful placel it's
enough to give one fit" And he laughed
Instantly laundering voice took up Lis
words, magnifying them hundred times.
aGivc ono q dt--hol hol hol" "a flt--hol
ho holn answered another voice, in wild ac-
cents, from far up the cliff. "a flti fltl
= ftp chimed in voice after voice, each fling
ing tho words to and fro with shouts Of aw-
full laughter to the invisible lips Of the other
till the whole place echoed with the words
and with shreks of flendish merlimcnt,
W ich at last ceased as suddenly as they had
begun. IL 3n
cob, mon Dieuln yelled Alphonse, startled
quite out of such sels command as he
possessed. n'cBai n3 uf s
aMon Dieu! Mon Dieul Mon Dieuln the
Titanic echoes Numbered. shrieked and walled
Ia every conceivable tone. 1901 61a
@Ah, y said Umsloposaas, calmly, II clearly
perceive that devils live here. We'll, tue
place looks like it," aa te $500
/ tried to explain to him that the cause OF
all the hubbub was a very remarkable and
interesting echo, but he would not believe it.
aAh,n he said, II know an echo when hear
one There was one lived opposite my kraal
IN Zululand, and Che Intombisn tnaidens)
aused to talk with It. But il what we hear is
Il full grown echo, mine at homo can only
have i,ecn baby. No, no-they are devils
up there. But don't think much Of them,
though" he added, taking pinch of snuff.
AThey can copy sbat one says, but they don't
seem to be able 10 talk on their own account,
and they dare not show their faces" and he
| relapsed into silence, and apparently paid no
further attention to such contemplate flends
! After this we found it necessary to keep our
conversation down to whisper-for it mas
really unbearnbic 10 have every word ono
Uttered tossed to and fro like tennis ball, as
precipicc called to precipice. !,
| But even our whispers ran up thu rocks in
mysterious murmurs, till at last they died
away in long drawn siGhs Of sound. Echoes
are delightful and romantic things, but we
had moro than enough Of them in That dread
full gulf.
| As soon as we had settled ourselves little
on the round stones we proceeded to wash
and dress our burns as well as we could As
we had but a little oil for the Ian ern we could
not spare any for this purpose, so we skinned
| one of the swans and used the fut of its
breast, which proved an excellent substitute
Then we repacked the canoe and finally be-
ran 10 take some food, OF which need
/ scarcely say we were In need for our iiisensi-
bility had endured for many hours, and It
was, as our watches showed, midday. Ac-
ccrdingly we seated ourselves In circle, and
weresoon engaged in discussing our cold meat
with snch appetite as we could muster, which,
in my case at any rate, vas not much, as l
felt sick and faint after my sufferings OF the
previous night, and had besides a racking
headache 1t was curious meal The gloom
was so intense that we could scarcely SEQ the
way to cut our food and convey it to our
mouths. Still we got ON pretty well, although
the meat was tainted by the heat through
which it had passed, till happened to look
behind ne-my attention being attracted by
a noise Of something crawling over the
stontS--and perceived sitting upon rock in
my Immediate rear a huge species of black
fresh water crab, only it was five times tho
size Of any crab | ever saw This hideous
and loathsome looking animal had projecting
eyes that seemed to glare at one, very long
and flexible antennce, or feelers, and gigantic
claws Nor was especially favored with its
! company. From every quarter dozens Of
these hotrid biutes were creeping up, drawn,
! suppose, by the smell of the food from be-
tween the round stones and out Of the holes
In the prccpice. Some were already quite
close to us. stared, quite fascinated by the
unusual sight, and as did so saw ore of the
beasts stretch out is huge claw and give the
unsuspecting Good such nip that he
| jumped up with howl and set the wild
echoes flying in sober earnest Just then,
too, another, very large ono, fst hold of
Alphonse's leg, and declined to part with it,
and, as may be imagined, considerable
scene ensued Umslopogaas took his ak and
cracked the shell of one with the fat of it,
| whereon it SGT up boriid sort of screaming
| which the echoes multiplied thousand fold,
and leganto foam at the mouth, q proceed
4 ing that drew hundreds more of its friends
OUT of ,inslispected holes and corners. Those
OH the spot, perceiving that the animal was
| hurt, fell upon it like creditors on bank
rup:, and literally rent it limb from limb
with their huge pincers, and tieyoured it,
using their claws to convey the fragments to
their mouths. Selling whatever weapons
were handy, such as stones or paddles, we
commenced war upon the monsters, whose
| numbers were increasing by leaps and
| bounds, and whose stencil was overpowering.
/ SO fast as we cracked their nrmor others
! seized the injured ones and devoured them,
foamilrg at tue mouth, and screaming as they
| did SO. Nor did the brutes stop at that